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December 20, 2009, a Sunday
Sugarite Canyon State Park (Lake Alice), New Mexico, to Parker (K), Colorado, USA
— "Home" for the holidays
Had my normal breakfast, then finished up a blog entry as much as I could without being online. (There's no cell phone reception at the Lake Alice Campground.) We prepped the RV to move, then went to dump around 9:15. The dump station isn't designed for dumping our RV — it slopes way too much towards the front of the RV. Even with a set of Lynx Levelers to raise the front of our RV as much as possible, it still slopes towards the front. Oh well, an unsatisfying dump is still better than no dump. We hooked up the Jeep to tow in the pull-out across from the campground, then got underway at 9:35.
We went over Raton Pass (7834 ft or 2388m) and into Colorado at 9:58. I listened to an episode of Car Talk.
We stopped at a Loaf 'N Jug gas station in Pueblo at 11:45 to fill up the RV at $2.199/gal with our $0.10/gal discount from buying lots of groceries at Kroger affiliates lately.
Then we went to the WalMart in Pueblo at 12:09. It's right next to a McDonald's, and J was hoping that we could go online through their Wi-Fi network if we parked close enough to it. J couldn't get online through their Wi-Fi, so after I finished uploading the blog entry using my Verizon USB stick and eating a ham and Swiss sandwich, we moved the RV to the parking space behind the McDonald's. J couldn't get online through their Wi-Fi there either, so we moved the RV back to where we had just been and I dropped J off by the door to WalMart so she could go in and start shopping. I finished my lunch, then went in to join her. We left around 1:55.
After we got back on I-25 heading north, I started listening to another episode of Car Talk. We got onto the Interquest Parkway, CO-83, just north of Colorado Springs to take the scenic route to Parker. Bossy, our Garmin nüvi 350 GPS, suggested we go that way. For normal vehicles, it's probably slower than continuing up I-25 at 75 mph (120kph), but because we only go 55-60 mph (88-97kph), she thought that would be a good way to go. The two-lane road wasn't bad to drive, especially because we didn't get stuck behind any slow-moving vehicles — we were the slow-moving vehicle. :)
We stopped in the Best Buy parking lot in Parker around 4:00 to unhook the Jeep. The Jeep didn't start up, so we jumped it using the Husky emergency battery. (I'll get around to fixing the umbilical cord between the RV and Jeep soon so this hopefully won't happen again.)
We went to SJ&DilK's (J's Son J and Daughter-in-law K's) in Parker. GA (grandson A, age 7), GJ (grandson J, age 4), and GS (granddaughter S, age 2.5) were glad to see us. After visiting for a bit, I started to take on fresh water for the RV. Then I started moving all of the packages we had had sent there into the RV. GA and GJ helped me with that. The grandkids had just gotten an LED headlamp each, and were excited to go out in the dark with them to run around while I chased them. DilK picked up some Papa John's pizzas: pineapple and pepperoni/sausage.
J and I returned to the RV around 7:00 after saying goodbye so J could take advantage of a Wi-Fi network that was really fast. I started unpacking some of the things I had had sent to SJ&DilK's, and I was almost like a kid at Christmas. The Quantum Turbo 2x2 Battery and Quantum Cable CZ to power a Canon Speedlite that I won on Ebay worked great as did a second Quantum Cable CS4 that I got through a different eBay auction. The Sunpak 383 flash and Quantum Cable CS4 to power it that I got through two different eBay transactions worked great. I was pleased to find out that the Sunpack 383 works with just power from the Quantum battery. The Canon Speedlite flashes require the regular AAs to power the electronics when they're attached to a Quantum battery. The PT-04TM wireless transmitter/receiver set was much smaller than I was expecting. It also felt cheap (but what would you expect for something that's about 1/10th the price of a PocketWizard), and it didn't come with an AAA batteries for the receiver, so I didn't test it. The Bogen 3372 light stands had a little more than the described "scratches and marks" — the former owner had engraved his name on them! Oh well, they were still a better deal than getting some new ones. We left around 9:30 with me in the RV and J in the Jeep.
We went to K's in Parker where we'll be through the holidays. It took a while to get level because there was ice in part of the gutter and the stack of Lynx Levelers for the front passenger-side wheel kept collapsing where I had initially wanted to place it. I ended up parking the RV so that the Lynx Levelers were on an area completely free of ice. We hooked up to electricity and I kept the power converter (converts 110VAC to 12VDC) turned off so it wouldn't run and require supplemental cooling from the O2 Cool fan. (You may read more about our power converter problem on the blog entry for December 14, 2009.)
We went over Raton Pass (7834 ft or 2388m) and into Colorado at 9:58. I listened to an episode of Car Talk.
We stopped at a Loaf 'N Jug gas station in Pueblo at 11:45 to fill up the RV at $2.199/gal with our $0.10/gal discount from buying lots of groceries at Kroger affiliates lately.
Then we went to the WalMart in Pueblo at 12:09. It's right next to a McDonald's, and J was hoping that we could go online through their Wi-Fi network if we parked close enough to it. J couldn't get online through their Wi-Fi, so after I finished uploading the blog entry using my Verizon USB stick and eating a ham and Swiss sandwich, we moved the RV to the parking space behind the McDonald's. J couldn't get online through their Wi-Fi there either, so we moved the RV back to where we had just been and I dropped J off by the door to WalMart so she could go in and start shopping. I finished my lunch, then went in to join her. We left around 1:55.
After we got back on I-25 heading north, I started listening to another episode of Car Talk. We got onto the Interquest Parkway, CO-83, just north of Colorado Springs to take the scenic route to Parker. Bossy, our Garmin nüvi 350 GPS, suggested we go that way. For normal vehicles, it's probably slower than continuing up I-25 at 75 mph (120kph), but because we only go 55-60 mph (88-97kph), she thought that would be a good way to go. The two-lane road wasn't bad to drive, especially because we didn't get stuck behind any slow-moving vehicles — we were the slow-moving vehicle. :)
We stopped in the Best Buy parking lot in Parker around 4:00 to unhook the Jeep. The Jeep didn't start up, so we jumped it using the Husky emergency battery. (I'll get around to fixing the umbilical cord between the RV and Jeep soon so this hopefully won't happen again.)
We went to SJ&DilK's (J's Son J and Daughter-in-law K's) in Parker. GA (grandson A, age 7), GJ (grandson J, age 4), and GS (granddaughter S, age 2.5) were glad to see us. After visiting for a bit, I started to take on fresh water for the RV. Then I started moving all of the packages we had had sent there into the RV. GA and GJ helped me with that. The grandkids had just gotten an LED headlamp each, and were excited to go out in the dark with them to run around while I chased them. DilK picked up some Papa John's pizzas: pineapple and pepperoni/sausage.
J and I returned to the RV around 7:00 after saying goodbye so J could take advantage of a Wi-Fi network that was really fast. I started unpacking some of the things I had had sent to SJ&DilK's, and I was almost like a kid at Christmas. The Quantum Turbo 2x2 Battery and Quantum Cable CZ to power a Canon Speedlite that I won on Ebay worked great as did a second Quantum Cable CS4 that I got through a different eBay auction. The Sunpak 383 flash and Quantum Cable CS4 to power it that I got through two different eBay transactions worked great. I was pleased to find out that the Sunpack 383 works with just power from the Quantum battery. The Canon Speedlite flashes require the regular AAs to power the electronics when they're attached to a Quantum battery. The PT-04TM wireless transmitter/receiver set was much smaller than I was expecting. It also felt cheap (but what would you expect for something that's about 1/10th the price of a PocketWizard), and it didn't come with an AAA batteries for the receiver, so I didn't test it. The Bogen 3372 light stands had a little more than the described "scratches and marks" — the former owner had engraved his name on them! Oh well, they were still a better deal than getting some new ones. We left around 9:30 with me in the RV and J in the Jeep.
We went to K's in Parker where we'll be through the holidays. It took a while to get level because there was ice in part of the gutter and the stack of Lynx Levelers for the front passenger-side wheel kept collapsing where I had initially wanted to place it. I ended up parking the RV so that the Lynx Levelers were on an area completely free of ice. We hooked up to electricity and I kept the power converter (converts 110VAC to 12VDC) turned off so it wouldn't run and require supplemental cooling from the O2 Cool fan. (You may read more about our power converter problem on the blog entry for December 14, 2009.)